Brothers
by DallasWinstonLove
Summary: A/N: NOT an The Outsiders or/and Stand By Me story. A ORIGINAL story INSPIRED by the films.   5 friends, 5 greasers, goes on a trip but things doesn't happen as they want.   DON'T hazzle that one of the characters is like Dallas Winston. I don't care.


**A/N: **An original story which is inspired by the films.

**Brothers**

**Inspired by The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and The Body by Stephan King.**

_**Dedicated to a true friend that has helped me through thick and thin**_

_**and showed me the wonders of life. **_

Chapter One

"Are ya comin'?" Jojo Stevens yelled, already far infront of us. His real name's really John, but no one called him that anymore because he was always happy and jumping around. Like a yo-yo. He was the kind that could join in with the little kids and play games with them so he could do something. I shook my head by smiled tho. We'd jumped off the train about an hour ago and we was getting close to the town. We had to get some food and nessecry things for the trip. We were going to the mountains, mainly because Jojo had decided that he wanted to see if he could find a puma.

Jojo, Black-Coal and Tex was all infront of them, all of them smoking. But I wasn't behind though. Behind me Jack Franko walked with his cowboy hat on, covering his eyes and the only thing you could see was the straw in his mouth. He was just as much greaser as us but he never wore clothes like us. He looked like he was one of those real cowboys. Always wore his cowboy hat and booths. He didn't like rock or anythin' like we did, he just liked country, which we didn't really did but we never told him. Except Tex of course. Punched him anything he dared to mention anything with country. But Jack was a fine guy. You could always find him in the rodeos because he liked one of the horses there.

"Jack's further back!" I shouted back to Jojo, which was just laughing.

"That's just cause he's a slow head!" he shrieked, laughing. Black-Coal grinned like a nutcase and slowed slightly down, walking backwards so he was facing me, Tex and Jack.

"So, you're a slow head?" he shouted to Jack, before laughing even more. He was properly not gonna stop laughing in a long while. He laughed all the time, never managing to stop laughing cause he always got big laughter fits. He and Jojo was bestfriends and they did everything together. And he had this giant love for books, which neither me or the others ever understand. But his mom was a teacher so that might be the cause. His nickname he'd gotten after he'd started helping his dad in the coal mines when he was just a little kid. So he was always covered in coal. His real name was really Tim though.

"Shut up, faggot!" Jack shouted back but he was smiling. He wasn't angry or anything. He rarely was because he had an easy humour. He was real easy to talk to.

We continued walking, Texas smoking as if his life depended on it or something. But of course he found the time to turn to me and smirk.

"Steve kid, heard ya and that lousy broad split. She two timed ya or somethin'?" he asked with dark smirk. I glared at him because I didn't really wanna think about Annie or anything but I didn't want Texas calling her a lousy broad either.

"The lousy broad has a name, Tex." I said but I didn't dare to look at him because I didn't want to look on him if he decided to punch me or something. Tex, or Texas, which was his real name was one of the worst hoods in our neighborhood and really few liked him and he liked less people. He always took the law in his own hands and the fuzz always wanted him dead. I didn't really know too much of what he did when he wasn't around us and I didn't really wanna know either because I doubt I'd be able to look him straight in the eyes then.

Tex obviously got his name from the state: Texas. His mom and dad was born in Texas but they had to move when they were married…or something. I'm not too sure because I never really asked him. But now he had no parents at all. They died when Tex was real young and he said he couldn't remember him but once this gal that he'd slept with said he'd been having a nightmare when he'd fallen asleep. Tex had been denying real much because he didn't like to be looked upon as weak. He'd been living in various fosterhomes and stuff but he never staid in one place more than a few days and now he was living by himself. He didn't seem to mind much. But now he was real cold and he never trusted anyone. That's what it seemed like at least.

Chapter 2

"You should have seen that, Mustang, man. It was the tuffest mustang i've ever seen." Black-Coal said entuiastic as we walked. Of course it was him that would talk about being jumped by some socs, like this. He didn't worry about being jumped like most people. He always thought he would manage just nice anyway. Jojo shook his head.

"I'm pretty sure I've seen tuffer." he said and grinned widely, making Black-Coal roll his eyes but he was grinning. Widely. We all knew what would happen.

"No way! This mustang was in metalic red with a lightning strike painted and the engine was makin' the raawest sound ever." Black-Coal said and Jojo just laughed.

"That's nothin'! The mustang I saw was black with 'em fancy flames on it and the V8 was almost enough to make me hard." he beamed and they kept discussing but the real amusing thing was how they would jump around on things and really use their arms to dramatice everything.

"Okay, okay guys! We get ya. The car looked real tuff an' all. But I doubt that was whatcha was really thinkin' about when you saw those two cars." Jack said and both Jojo and Black-Coal just kicked in the ground before Black-Coal just suddenly attacted Jojo and they were soon rolling on the ground, wrestling each other. Both me and the two others just rolled our eyes. Those two had too much energy.

I was thinking about how it was to be jumped. I'd never been properly jumped. Well, there was some socs that tried to jump me once, when my cousin was in town. He looked real small for his age even though he was just a half year older than me. He had surprised the socs though and he broke one of the soc's nose and then they left us alone. I liked my cousin. He was a polite yet cool person. But people always said he was homo. A homo is if you like men when you are a man, if you didn't. It is a bit weird but i'm sure those homos is just like us. And i'm sure as hell that my cousin doesn't like men because he was drooling over my griendfriend before we split. But my cousin's a decent person and didn't really try it with her.

Annie was real nice and she was from the middle class as well. But she had moved her about a year ago and didn't really understand the war between us greasers and socs. But Annie left me when she meant I used too much time with the gang and not too much time with her even though I later heard she left because she was in love with someone.

It was getting real late now and even Jojo was starting to have a lack of energy so Jack said that we should just stay the night in the wood nearby the road we'd walked. Jack was kind of our leader even though most of us bugged him, but he was the oldest and he didn't pull all weird stuff with everyone and everything like us or he didn't get in the cooler all the time like Jojo and Tex. I had been in the cooler once but I wasn't going back there again so I played it real nice…At least with the fuzz around.

Everyone was pretty worn out because walking does take a lot of strenght and stuff, but Black-Coal wasn't the last tired so he was bugging the hell out of us with telling us all kind of weird stories that we all knew was just made up or at least very much of it.

"-And the soc was just screaming in fear and I swear he pied on himself because I was so damn scary with my glare and that switchblade, man, I swear, he was dead scared." He said and finally sat down and took a breath. Jack just shook his head at Black-Coal because he had given a new jolt of energy to Jojo which was now sitting in a tree, smoking on Jack's weed. Jack didn't like it when people took his things but he didn't say anything cause he took everything real cool when it was talk about us. Except if we picked a fight. He was real tall and skinny really but he defiantly knew how to use those muscles he actually had. Which was kind of annoying if we prehaps thought that we were doing no bad things and he thought we did.

Chapter 3

The dark had really set in now and everyone, included me was getting ready to sleep. Jack was already sleeping because he always got up real early. Black-Coal was muttering things and when I looked at him I finally got what he was doing. He was reading a book and Black-Coal had a bad habit of reading things loud but at least he was only muttering now, which was better than before, when he would read real loud. I glanced away from him a second and when I looked at him, his face was buried in the book, snoring quietly. He always went from hyper to nearly dead in just a few seconds.

I looked on Tex this time and he was just looking up in the sky, smoking. No one else smoked as much as him. He was thinking a lot, I realized. I wonder what he was thinking about. He seemed like he was older than all of us, even Jack and he was just old as me and the two crazies. He didn't really look older, but he seemed like he was older. I think it was because he had to grow up real fast and take a lot of shit from the people he had lived with. Once I'd comed by his place with some of his foster parents and I was really shocked by the sight because his fosterfather was really letting it out on him, punching him and Texas was only eleven at time and I think that really hit me because I can't remember one time that i've been talking real bad about Texas for what he did to people and how he behaved, like both Jack, Jojo and Black-Coal had.

I don't think I really got him or anything because I don't think anyone could understand Texas because he wouldn't let anyone really understand him because he was always closing himself away from everyone. Even us and we were supposed to be his friends. Though, I think a part of that is because I think he knows what the other three says about him to others. It's like they're ashamed of being friends with him and that's real sad.

"Tex." I asked real quietly when I saw that the others were sleeping and he turned slightly to look at me, seeming surprised but he nodded.

"What, kid?" he asked quietly. I wondered what I was really going to say or ask because i didn't really know why I asked but I realized that I answered even before I got to think twice.

"What are ya thinkin' about?"

Tex shrugged slightly and I was kind of surprised that he didn't knock my face in for asking because I remember that there was this kid asking about something kind of personally and Texas pulled the blade on him. He didn't cut him though, he just punched him real hard and his jaw was broken. And Tex didn't regret either cause if Tex did something, he just didn't regret on it. He always did things because he felt like doing it and then it was no reason to regret.

"Everythin'." He said and I guess that's as much as anyone will ever get out of him because he wasn't really one to talk too much unless it was hitting on a girl or picking a fight. Then he could real talk a lot.

"There's a lot to think of…The future and stuff, you dig?" I said even though it sounded real lame. But I didn't really care if it sounded real lame.

"Yeah." Tex answered and sighed slightly. "Goodnight, kid." he said and the conversation was closed and Tex quickly fell asleep. But I kept thinking. The future really scared me because I didn't really know what I wanted. And I didn't really want to grow older because then I couldn't spend my time like this. Being with the gang.

I wondered what the others wanted to do. I couldn't see Texas doing anything else than what he did now because he was an outlaw. I don't think he would last too long because he asked for trouble. Once Jojo said that Texas didn't really want to live and that was why he was doing real horrible things. So people could take his life. I didn't really understand what Jojo meant about it when he said it because I was only twelve and I was really dumb back then but now I understand and I guess Jojo's right.

Jack would get real succesful one day, I bet. He would have his own rodeo. With many horses and I guess Jojo would work there because Jojo was too lively for anyone that didn't know him to handle him. Black-Coal would continue to work in the mines but he and Jojo would always be friends because nothing could seperate them. They were bestfriends. More than us. I didn't really have a bestfriend cause we were all bestfriends with each other. It was real nice, really. Soon the night really hit me as well and I must have fallen asleep.

Chapter 4

I woke up to hear Jack humming on one of those old country songs I'd only heard through him and I didn't know the name of the song or the singer. I rubbed my hair which was almost free from grease and I don't like my hair too much without the grease. I don't hate it or anything. Hair don't mean that much but I still like it more with grease in it. I have blond hair and blue eyes. The girl fancies it so it don't bug me that much that I look like I belong to that swedish family nearby my house. They all have blond hair and blue eyes and when they talk to each other they sound real weird. Actually, they always sound weird but I don't care that much.

I sat up and looked for the grease in my bag and once I found it, i greased and comed my hair. Then I got up and walked over to Jack, which was making breakfast.

"Shut your trap with that shit." I heard someone mumble and I saw Tex, half awake, cussing out Jack because he was humming on that song. Jack just shook his head.

"You shut it or ya won't get breakfast." He said and Tex just flipped him the finger.

"Faggot." he said and Jack rolling his eyes.

"Fuck you too, Tex." he said but he said it quietly, and I doubt Tex even heard him. We didn't need to take more than one look on Tex to see if he was in a bad mood or not. And now he was in a bad mood. No one said anything to Tex when he was in a real bad mood. Most people anyway.

"What's for breakfast, Jack?" suddenly Jojo's voice nearly screamed. Of course it was Jojo that would basically scream in the morning. He had too much energy for his own good. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Scrambled eggs." he said and the words woke Black-Coal up because within two seconds he was sitting up.

"I want eggs!" he shouted and Jojo turned to look at him and gave him a dead serious look.

"Blackie. I want them more than you." he said and Black-Coal blinked before he suddenly jumped on Jojo and they were rolling around, wrestling, screaming in each others ears about who wanted eggs the most.

"Guys! Come on. Split it!" Jack shouted and suddenly both Jojo and Black-Coal looked up on Jack with innocent eyes. But faster than hell they started blaming the other one for starting but they weren't really getting anywhere and they understood that themselves.

"Steve started it!" They suddenly said and Jack looked on me and half grinned.

"You started it, kid." he said and I just rolled my eyes but I was grinning though, I always grinned by them.

"It's ready." Jack said and I threw away my smoke and walked over to Jack which was holding out four plates with eggs. Soon the two others also came over, but Tex didn't move.

"Tex, it's food." Jack said but Tex still didn't move, as if he didn't hear him. He was just smoking. Jack didn't say anything. Jack was properly the one that cared the most for Tex. Jack got a lot of crap from Tex but he could also take the most crap from Tex. If Tex was in the cooler, Jack always made sure that there was money and food for Tex when he got out and back in his place. And he always made sure that Tex had the place so he even paid the bills.

"Take it over to him, kid." Jack told me, handing me Tex's plate and I walked over to Tex and sat the plate down by Tex which didn't even look at me. He was in one of his moods and there wasn't too much to do about it.

"Show some fucking respect, Tex." Black-Coal suddenly snapped. Black-Coal was all about showing respect even though he was a joker in nature. But he was still respectful because his mamma had learned him to. And it bugged him when Tex wasn't when Jack did so much for him.

"Mind your own fuckin' buisness, kid." Tex said and looked on Black-Coal with a cold glare that was sending chills up my back.

"You're just as much kid as me." Black-Coal spat and Tex got up and threw away his smoke. Jack, which was already done with his food, looked on them with a wary look and Jojo gulped and put down his plate and I think I ate faster because suddenly the food was away.

"What ya said, fag?" Tex asked through gritted teeth and Black-Coal looked coldly on him.

"You heard me." he said and Tex belted him, real hard as well. Black-Coal started bleeding but he wasn't one to give up and fight and punched him back and they was getting real nasty and me, Jack and Jojo was growing nervous because Black-Coal could really bunch a man hard but Tex was real bad.

Jojo got up and walked over to them.

"Come on! Stop it, guys! Come on!" Jojo shouted to them desperatly, trying to make them stop. He knew the only way was to get Black-Coal away so Jojo grabbed Black-Coal arm but that wasn't the smartest move because Black-Coal was surprised and by accident he punched Jojo's face real bad and Jojo let out a small scream because his nose was broken. Black-Coal blinked and stopped fighting Tex and Tex didn't do anything back.

It was easy to see all the guilt in Black-Coal's face because he never liked hurting his buddy seriously. Sure they could have a lot of fun with wrestling and stuff, but not like this.

Black-Coal turned away from us and walked away quickly, and when he'd walked some seconds he started running. Jojo looked confused before he ran after him. I glanced on Tex, which Jack was fixing up. I ran after Black-Coal. When me and Jojo reached him, he was kicking in the ground, swearing and cussing on Tex's name as well as his own.

"Blackie, man, what's up?" Jojo asked, holding on his nose. It was when Black-Coal opened his mouth that we heard a sob.

"I didn't mean to hit ya. It was all Tex's fault." he said and I felt real bad for Black-Coal cause we all knew that he was living under a lot of stress and sometimes when you lived with stress you just had to let it out over the weirdest things.

"Black-Coal, calm down, man. I know it wasn't your fault, savvy?" Jojo said Black-Coal sat down, kicking in the ground. He was crying and both me and Jojo sat down by his side.

"Tell us what's really wrong?" I said and I felt even more bad, hearing how he was trying to catch his breath.

"My ma ain't havin' enough money to pay for our house and we might loose it and I'm trying to work more but there's just not enough working hours for me and-and-ma's real upset." He said and Jojo wrapped one arm around him.

"Don't worry. We'll help you, right Steve?" he said and I nodded because Black-Coal's mom was the nicest woman i've ever met and neither of us wanted her to be upset and not her son either. Black-Coal wiped his eyes and looked down.

"I shouldn't even complain because at least my mom cares for me and your folks don't." he said with a choked sob and Jojo shook his head.

"Don't say that, Blackie. I wouldn't like it any more than you do if I might loose my home." he said matter of factly. Jojo stood up and pulled up Black-Coal and I got up as well.

"We should continue." he said and we walked back to Jack and Tex and started walking once more.

Chapter 5

About an hour later, we got to town. It really just like ours and I couldn't hide that feeling of wondering why people went here instead of our town. But I knew why. Two years ago. August 24th 1961 the motorway was laid through the town and it was a better place to start new stores. But we weren't here to shop. We just needed some food and then pass through the town. Jojo was getting rather impatient to get to the mountains.

"It's just the same!" Jojo shouted to us and looked real disapointed and we just shook our heads at him. He had never been out of out of the town and was really disapointed at it, which wasn't too hard to guess. Jojo always had high toughts about everything, also this trip. It could get him in a awefully depressed mood but there was nothing we could do about that. Jojo was always like that and he'd properly always be like that. But the moment he saw a black T-Bird 1963 model he was staring at it, his jaw open.

Actually, both me, Jojo, Black-Coal and Tex was staring at the car with love in our eyes and it was just Jack that didn't seem too amazed by it.

"Man…that's one tuff looking car." Jojo and Black-Coal said together and Tex looked over his shoulder and there was no one that seemed to owe the car and he walked over to it and I felt my heart race because I didn't want to be near incase the fuzz showed and Tex got hauled in. I didn't want to get in trouble.

Tex was about to smash the window when we heard a voice.

"Get away from the car, punk!" a man shouted and tex looked over his shoulder, same for us. A man with bright red face and big suit walked hurriedly against us. He was short and skinny and real strange looking and Tex walked away from the car. Laughing. He was laughing real loudly at him and I couldn't help it because soon I was laughing just as much as Tex and the others did as well.

"Come on. Let's go to the store and get the food so we can get going." I said and the others nodded, agreeing. We walked to the nearest store.

Inside the store we got a view we didn't really like too much. In the store there were socs. We didn't really like those socs. They were always looking down on us because we were greasers. The socs was rich upper class people that had everything they wanted and more. They had horrible hobbies like looking down on us because we were as rich and decent dressed like them. Us greasers was always looked upon like thieves and a bunch of punks that were no good. We had grease in our hair and wore jeans and leather jackets. I guess we did steal and we did cause trouble a lot but that didn't mean all of us were bad and all. Most of us were real decent, at least to some people. Even though we got in trouble a lot.

"Get out _greasers_, this ain't no place for trash like you." one of the socs spat and and Tex glared at him. Tex never liked to be called greaser. He didn't mind hood, but greaser was a disgreace for him. But was it anything a socs said, he didn't like it no matter what because he couldn't take those socs.

"Make us!" he said, scaringly coldly, even for us that used to him. But the leader was playing tough and just sneered, but the sneer was a sign that they were infact scared of Texas. The leader belted Tex which first groaned before giving one harsh punch back and both Jojo and Black-Coal quickly joined into the fight. Same for me, even though I wasn't as eager as the three other greasers. Jack on the other hand didn't seem like he would join in at all. He is a bit slow and doesn't always like to stress too much. He's either real slow or real quick and that's real annoying for us because we never know where we got him. But I think he likes that, really. But then this weird looking soc, and i call him weird looking because he had a real weird looking nose that was real pointy and long and it looked really out of place. The weird looking soc suddenly punched Jack and it knocked his hat off, making the greaser look real mad. He had real green eyes and they shone with annoyance at the socs. He slowly bowed down and picked up the hat and put it on his head, the straw still in his mouth, but then he spat out the straw and we knew he was real mad then because Jack never got rid of the straw unless he was real pissed off. Then he suddenly grabbed the soc's shoulders and threw him in a shelf. He could be real tuff at times.

It was first when one of the socs pulled out a switchblade that things got serious. I didn't have a switchblade and I don't think anyone of the others had either since they, along with me, backed away. At least so I tought.

"Damn, I should have brought my blade." I heard Jack mutter and Jojo and Black-Coal nodded, agreeing. But Tex…he didn't step back and I grew worried. I knew Tex always did some bad stuff and always took more than he could handle.

I let out a small sigh in some sort of relivement as I saw Tex taking out a switchblade of his own. At least he had some sort of protection.

Tex gave them a death glare and it was so cold that if looks could kill, they would be dead ages ago. They circled the hood and there was nothing we could do. The fight started for real this time. Tex was getting lashed at all the time. I'm pretty sure his ribs was broken and same for his nose, which was bleeding as if it would never stop. Tex was beaten so badly and the switchblades was occasionally cutting his skin but he kept fighting. Texas never lost a fight. Because he never gave up.

But as they threw him in the wall and kept kicking him it was growing harder and harder to just watch as they abused him like this. Jojo, which had a real big heart couldn't take anyone getting hurt like this and was trying to get over to them but Black-Coal held him back, knowing that Jojo would just get hurt or something if he tried. But Jack had other plans. He grabbed three nearby boxes from a shelf and threw them at the socs and soon the other two followed in his act and they were pretty quickly throwing just about everything they could at the socs while I got over to Tex.

Tex was looking real bad, bleeding and arching. It was real strange seeing Tex like this because he was the tough one that never got hurt at all so it was real weird to see him like this and even though i didn't really wanted to admit it, it was real hard to see him like this. Tex and me had never been real close and he rarely showed affection to the gang but he cared though. He could glare and snap and do all kinds of awful things to us all the time, but he never failed to let us down. He just didn't really like to show emotions because he never had anyone to show them to. I wanted to get him out of the store before it got worse and that the owners came back. The greasers would get the blame. Even though we didn't start. Just as we always did. Tex surprised me. He took my hand.

I walked out of the store, Tex leaning on me, nearly about to pass out but he couldn't pass out because he would get too heavy to carry then and that would get real bad because I wouldn't be able to carry him then. Being a fifthteen year old, I wasn't too weak but Texas would be too heavy to carry even though he was just as old as me, Jojo and Black-Coal. Jack was 16-going-onto-17 though. We often wondered why he was hanging out with us.

"Come on Tex, don't ya pass out, you'd get too damn heavy then, hood." I said and Tex did try, I think, considering his reply.

"Y'know, when we get back, Imma get it on with that lousy ex broad of yours." he said with a weak smirk. Yet sly though. Daringly. I would have slapped him if it wasn't for the fact that he was really weak and I was carrying him.

"Faggot." I said and rolled my eyes .

"Fuck!" a scream was heard and it was easy to hear that it was Jojo's voice, screaming in pain it seemed and soon the socs came running out of the store and I started getting real worried because Jojo could take a lot of pain and when he screamed like this, it had to be bad. I glanced on Tex, which didn't have any expression of caring but his eyes said that he was worried as well.

"Put me down." he said and I let him sit by a tree and I watched him take out some…grease from his pocket, greasing his hair and took out a cigarette lighting it. I was surprised at his calmness.

"I doubt this is the best time to style ya hair and take a smoke." I commented and he looked up on me with a glare.

"I can't exactly do anythin', so I do what I can do at this time of being." he said and he was about to continue but he was interupted by Black-Coal's voice. "The fuckin', egoistic, bloody, faggots stabbed him!" and both me and Tex turned to them as they walked out of the store, Jojo looking like he was in pain and his hands were covered in blood as he was holding over his stomach, his shirt bloody as well.

"Imma kill 'em!" Black-Coal repeated over and over again as they walked towards us, Jojo having some problems with walking and it was easy to see the pain in his eyes. I had never been stabbed and I really hoped to God i never would because I wasn't strong like Jojo that still managed to keep himself up as he was stabbed. "Chill it." Jojo said and he seemed to be as alright as he could be. "I've been stabbed before, I'll manage." he said but his voice wasn't really going with his words.

"Both you and Tex are hurt, come on, we'll just get home again." Jack said and I was agreeing with him, but both Jojo and Tex was putting on a fight about this.

"Ya managed to convince me to come along, then we'll damn well finish the trip as fucking well." Texas said while Jojo was whining about how he wanted to see those pumas. It was weird that even when he was wounded like this, he still wanted to see some damn animals.

I looked on Jack with a hopeless look and he gave me the same back.

"Fine, we'll continue, but the moment you two get worse, we'll turn back." he said. Jack could be real wise at time even though he was a dropout. He was streetsmart, just like the rest of us. Jojo grinned and gave an attempt to jump but it ended up with one hell of a cry in pain, but we continued with fresh courage.

It went real slow but that didn't really matter to us because neither of us would be missed at home if we didn't come home quickly. Well, Black-Coal's mom cared but she knew what we was doing because Black-Coal had a real good relationship with his mom after his father died and he had to help her with getting money and stuff. Plus she made real good food and occasionally invited us all to dinner. Even though we were the 'bad people'. She never cared and she let us do almost whatever we wanted just as long as we didn't get too hurt. Jack's parents on the other hand thought he was on a school trip, and they believed him, which showed off how much they cared since he had dropped out of school years ago. And my mom had it way too busy to watching the others to notice that I was missing. And, of course, Tex had no one to bother with.

**Chapter 6**

We walked, occasionally cracking jokes and stuff. Jojo walked without help but both me, Jack and Black-Coal had to help Texas walk, which you could see made him feel embarressed with himself even though there was no need for that. But he didn't know he just seemed stronger by accepting our tight friendship.

"Imma marry Mina." Jack suddenly said and we all looked on him surprised.

"Are you serious?" I asked because Jack had always said Mina was just a fling and that he was too much of an free man to ever settle. He took a drag of the smoke he had, seeming like he was thinking.

"Yeah, I mean, she can nag a whole lot but she's real nice and she always worries about me an' stuff." he said with a shrug, the cowboy hat hiding his expression. I wanted to see his expression but Jack always hid his expressions. No one really knew why though.

"That's great, man. I'm sure it will do good for ya." Jojo said as no one of us seemed to say anything that could seem too cheeringly. I think we was all in a bit of shock because he just wasn't the kind.

"Thanks." Jack muttered and we all fell silent. I don't know why it seemed to hit us all so hard. Maybe it was the fact that time was changing all the time. It just changed so much.

After walking for a fair good while with no talking, Jojo's voice frightened me for a second.

"Can we just take a break, just some minutes." he asked and we turned to him and we all nodded because he all right to ask for a break once awhile and he was walking really far behind and I'd noticed he'd thrown away his smoke, which he just did when he was tired or something because he was always smoking a whole lot. But not as much as Texas. No one did. We sat down by a huge tree and Jojo sat with his back against the tree, while the others seated a bit away from him. Tex was trying to fix some of his wounds, causing a lot of swearing from the hood.

"I swear, those socs are dead, man!" he said through gritted teeths as he was trying to clean one of the wounds. Black-Coal nodded.

"On the way back, imma find them and beat the crap outta them." I heard Black-Coal say.

I was talking to Jack but I wasn't really focusing or hearing what he said. I was more focused on Jojo. He looked real weak. His face was growing more and more pale and I looked on his hands. They covered the wound he had told us that had quit bleeding. I got up on my feet and made my way over to Jojo and I had a feeling this wasn't good. Not good at all and it sent a cold chill down my spine.

"Jojo?" I asked and he nodded slowly.

"Are you okay?" I asked, kneeling in front of him, worry in my eyes because I had a feeling things weren't that good and it scared me a lot because I didn't really know what to do when things got bad and what if he needed to go to a hospital at this very moment? Jojo took my hand and squeezed it.

"I'm scared Steve…." he started and I felt myself freeze at his words. They were so weak. I looked down on his hands and shirt. There was awfully lot of blood there and I didn't really know too much about blood and the body but I was pretty sure so much blood wasn't good.

"Don't say that, don't be afraid. It's just some 'll stop it. Come on, Jojo" I said but my voice didnt sound too convincing.

"I don't think i'll make it, Steve…..But don't tell Black-Coal…Don't tell him I'm givin' up…" he said with a weak, weak voice and I felt a sob in my throat.

"Come on, we can get you to a hospital." I tried saying because I wanted him to get good again! I didn't want him to die. But Jojo shook his head.

"No…I just want to be here." he said. Suddenly I heard a voice and I don't think i'll ever heard someone so filled with pain.

"John…what's goin' on, man? You're not givin' up…Don't say that…" Black-Coal said and I turned to look at the fifthteen year old greaser that had tears in his eyes.

Jojo didn't answer and Black-Coal punched the ground. "Imma kill those socs! Imma kill them!" he kept repeating, hitting the ground, bowing his head, his black hair coming in his eyes so we couldn't see his teary eyes.

"I'm sorry, Tim." Jojo said and his words just made Black-Coal crack up and I watched the sobbing greaser.

Tex and Jack looked on us and both catching quickly on what was going on and Jack helped Tex over to us. Jack took off his hat, placing it on the ground and looked like it was hitting him slowly. Tex was trying his best not to show anything, but it was impossible. Even a tough, mean hood like him couldn't hide the pain he felt over the fact that Jojo was living his last minutes.

"You still got that switchblade, Tex?" Jojo asked, his voice hoars and Tex nodded and quickly found it but it was easy to see that he wasn't too happy to give it to someone. That switchblade was Texas's bestfriend. No doubt. But he did. And Jojo gave a weak, yet grateful smile. I think something with Jojo's smile lit a light in Texas's heart in latter years.

Jojo cut his hand and I quickly realized what he was doing and I took the knife and did the same. The three others quickly understood it as well and Black-Coal and Jack did the same. Tex didn't need to. He already had a wound that was still bleeding in his hand.

We all held out our hands, well, Tex was a bit slow, rolling his eyes slightly, but the smallest smile was on his lips. A sad one though. We all shook our hands together and managed it so we did it once and that everyone was involved. It was something we'd learned many years ago.

"Now we're blood brothers…" Jojo said with a small smile. But we already were brothers. We weren't really related or anything like that but we had a little family of our own where we all were brothers. But we liked this. This way Jojo would always be apart of us. And neither of us wanted to forget John Stevens.

Jojo closed his eyes and sighed heavily. His last minutes were coming and we all knew it but we just didn't want to realize it.

"Tell me that poem I like so much…" he said and it was obviously directed towards Black-Coal. He always told Jojo poems when Jojo had a bad time at home. Black-Coal was really nice like that. He would always comfort Jojo because Black-Coal was the bestest friend anyone could ever have. Black-Coal gulped because it was real hard for him to talk now because he was sobbing so much. But he calmed down quickly, wanting to say it before it was too late.

"_Nature's first green is gold. _

_Her hardest hue to hold. _

_Her early leaf's a flower._

_But only so an hour. _

_Then leaf subsides to leaf. _

_So Eden sank to grief._

_So dawn goes down to say-" _

Black-Coal and Jojo said the last line together, both greaser's voices hoars and Black-Coal took Jojo's hand.

"_Nothing gold can stay."_

Jojo smiled softly as he closed his eyes for the last time, pleased to hear Robert Frost's poem and sighed once more. He was mumbling as he held onto Black-Coal's hand. We didn't understand much of what he said but the last lines we understand perfectly.

"Stay together. Forever. Always brothers…" he said and there was a final sigh and his features got a soft expression.

Black-Coal sobbed loudly and violently, holding onto his bestfriend's hand. Jack held around the sobbing body, trying to comfort him as much as possible. But it seemed impossible. Black-Coal had lost one person close to him. He had lost his second half.

I gulped myself. It was hard. It arched in my heart to see the dead body of a once so lively guy.

I looked on Tex. He was looking away. He didn't even dare to look at Jojo. I guess he didn't want to cry in front of us. I understood him. He didn't know how to handle this either. Neither of us did.

We walked home. We didn't talk too much because there weren't too much to say. I had helped Tex the first part while Jack was trying to keep Black-Coal from doing something very stupid. When we walked there I realized just how much our friendship meant. Our little family meant. We accepted each other when others didn't. We helped each other when others shoved us away. It meant a lot to all of us. Jojo was right. We had to stay together. Always. We had to be always friends. Because if not, we could loose it all. I knew I would always remember this trip. It had learned us a lot. About so much. But most of all. It had learned us the value of a friendship.

**The End**


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